


The New Exhibit

by orphan_account



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Marine Biologist!Dipper, Merperson!Bill, Older!Twins, Other, Total AU, cause he's a triangle, nonbinary!bill, they don't know about the supernatural
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 09:24:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4516524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dipper is a Marine Biologist working at the Aquarium where the first Merperson to be kept in captivity is currently living. And it's name is Bill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part of your world?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Off the Deep End](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706983) by [MarshOnTheMellow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarshOnTheMellow/pseuds/MarshOnTheMellow). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic and it's mostly for shits and giggles... Don't expect to much  
> my tumblr is [Storrn-Draws-Shit](http://storrn-draws-shit.tumblr.com) so go there to talk to me c:
> 
> The twins house is [Here](http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/hwepl04187.html), And it's huge. Don't ask me how they managed to pay for it. Let's just pretend that their parents bought it for them?

"AHH Dipper! WAKE UP, wake up!" Dipper was shaken awake by his sister, He shot up and immediately tried to get up and off the bed, but fell onto the floor, legs tangled up in his sheets. Mabel laughed at him.

 

"What is it?" He asked, trying to sit back up or regain control of his movements.

 

"Nothing!" She chirped, He groaned. 

 

"Seriously Mabel?" She just giggled at him as he tried to untangle himself,

 

"I was just SO excited! I couldn't let you sleep through the best thing that has ever happened ever!!" She said jumping on the spot and waving her hands around her face, Dipper just sighed and kicked out at the sheets wrapped around his legs, managing to loose them.

 

"What is it this time? You think the bast thing ever happens at least once a week" He asked, standing. He glanced out of his window, the sun wasn't even up yet, he would never understand how Mabel had so much energy.

 

“Why are you such a downer?” Mabel chirped, grinning at her brother and ran off to the tv room, Dipper followed her down the stairs and found her sitting in front of the screen practically jumping up and down, he walked over to her and sat next to her. The tv was set to a news channel, and the only thing on the screen where some people on a boat trying to free what looked like a seal or a large fish caught in some debris. It was hard to tell what it was because it was under the water and thrashing to escape but it had to be pretty big.

 

"What is it?" Dipper asked, glancing at his twin sister, she was in awe.

 

"A mermaid" Mabel whispered, she was grinning. Dipper scoffed at her but watched the screen.

 

"Mermaids aren't real Mabel, you know that, they're just stories. It's probably just a big fi..." Mabel covered his mouth with her hand, Dipper huffed. He pulled her hand away but did't say any more. There really wasn't any point, she wouldn't listen.  They watched as the creature started coming into view. The tail of it was incredible, unlike anything either of the twins had ever seen, it was bright yellow with blue fins on the sides and at the end, it had to be at least 6 feet long. Mabel squealed and Dipper gaped at they saw the body of the creature, it was human, but not quite. It was inhumanly thin, with it's ribs and hip bones sticking out, under it's ribs where gills and on its back sticking out of the bones was a dorsal fin.

 

"No way" Dipper breathed, in awe of the creature on the screen in front of them, Mabel was grinning so wide it had to be hurting her mouth. Dipper looked closer at the 'mermaid' trying to find some sign that it wasn't real. "It's gotta be someone dressing up to get attention" Mabel shoved him as he said it and glared at him.

 

"It's clearly a Merman, Dipper" She said, He sighed and looked at the screen again, the 'mermaid' was screaming now it was out of the water and clear of the rubbish it had been caught in. Dipper furrowed his brow, looking at the creature's tail he didn't know how anyone could make that fake, it was bleeding where some scales had come of and it was moving violently.

Dipper shook his head and walked out of the room, there was no way that real life mermaids existed and no one knew about it, it was a hoax, Mabel would be devastated but she fell for all of these things. He went back upstairs, had a shower and got ready for work. When he came back downstairs nearly an hour later Mabel was still watching the screen in the living room. There was a woman on the screen wearing a dart suit jacket and skirt, she was talking about the creature, Dipper decided not to pay it any attention and he walked through to the kitchen. He made himself a quick breakfast of jam on toast and sat in the breakfast nook. Thinking about the probably not real fish-person. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice when Mabel burst into the room.

 

"DIPPER" She shouted, Dipper screamed and fell not so gracefully from his chair, Mabel laughed and he groaned. "They're sending the merman to your place!" She explained once Dipper had righted himself and washed the jam off his face. He looked at her, somewhat shocked,

 

"What? They still think that thing is real?" He asked, rubbing his forehead, mabel just pouted at him. "I'll take a picture for yo-" He was cut off by mabel hugging him and shouting "Thank you" at him multiple times, Dipper smiled.

 

* * *

  

The Sun had now fully risen over the pine trees that lined the sides of the road, Dipper was stopping in town for a cup of coffee, the Aquarium was only a few minutes away now and he was just on time, which was good. He had only started working there 2 months ago and he really didn't want to lose probably the best job he had ever had, granted he had only had 2 other jobs, and one of those was working for his Grunkle in a shitty tourist trap. Dippers name was called by the barrister, he stepped forward and grabbed the cup and headed back to his car. The drive to the Aquarium was slower than usual, there was more traffic than there was most days.

 

"Hey there Dude" one of Dipper's co-workers, Wendy said to him as he entered the 'employees only' area,

 

"Oh, Hi there, Wendy" He said, blushing slightly and grinning awkwardly, she smiled back.

 

"Did you hear the news?" Dipper nodded "It arrived like 20 minutes ago, It's out the back" Dipper looked at her, "What do you think about it? I heard that it's gonna be someone in your team that looks after it? How cool would that be" Dipper worked with behind the scenes stuff, cleaning tanks, organising exhibit changes and sick fish, that kind of thing. It would make sense that it would be his team. 

 

"I-I'm not sure. I thought it was a hoax at first" He said, she nodded seriously, then smiled at him.

 

"Well, I'd better get, we open in ten" She said, walking off. Dipper waved, smiling as she walked away.

 

* * *

 

"Mr. Pines! Just the person I wanted to see! Do I have a job for you!" The curator of the aquarium stood in front of him, Dipper had been in the morning meeting where he was usually told what he'd be doing over the day when he was called out by the owner. The woman before him was dressed in a flowery summer dress, she looked cheery and was probably in her early 30s. She spoke with lots of emotion.

 

"Er, Ok" Dipper said to her, her grin faltered for a second but she continued with enthusiasm,

 

"I'm sure that you've heard of our newest.. um, acquisition, and we need someone to take personal care of him..or it?. Now all of your team members have been here much longer than you and you might think that if anything that should make them more qualified to care for the, er, creature" 

 

"Oh, if you say so?" Dipper said, throughly confused.

 

"Well, I think the opposite, while they have been around the animals more, they also all have vital roles within the team, they must stay doing what they are doing. But you, are new here, and have just been doing odd jobs. No offence Dipper, may I call you Dipper? but you just aren't really needed in that role." Dipper stared at the woman blankly, trying to take in what she had said."I am here to offer you a job working with an undiscovered species, something we have never seen before. You will be spending all of your time with it, studying it and making sure that the poor thing heals. Do you think you can do that for me Dipper?" Dipper nodded, honestly just hoping to keep his job. "Excellent! I'll get someone to show you where it is!"

 

* * *

  

Dipper was absolutely dumbfounded, before him was a large tank, sunken into the floor, about a metre of it was above the surface, he couldn't see anything moving in it, the whole space felt creepy, unlike most of the aquarium this part had walls of plain concrete and the floor was plastic stuff made to stop people tripping into the water. The ceiling was high and the lights seemed dim, like they needed to be replaced. 

 

"And you're totally sure that it's real?" Dipper asked the man next to him, the maintenance guy just shrugged.

 

"Beats me dude, sure as hell looked it though" Dipper nodded and the man walked away. He stepped closer to the water, it was dark and murky, probably needed a really good clean. The tank hadn't been used in a really long time. He frowned and stepped back away, turning back to the door.

 

"Ugh, Seriously! They're making me do this? Look after some douche in a shitty mermaid outfit?" He shouted as quietly as he could, Suddenly he heard a splash. Dipper turned back to the tank, the Fish-man was propped up on the edge of it, Dipper backed away more, hands held in front of him. The creature was really human looking, it had long strawberry-blond hair that seemed totally dry even though he had been in the water two hot seconds ago and creepily yellow eyes. It was thin, like crazy thin, Dipper could see its bones easily. Its ears were like fins, bright blue with lighter markings that reminded Dipper of a lion fish, the tail of the creature was under the water, hidden.

 

"You really think I'm just a guy in a suit?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked that, there should be more coming some time soon, hopefully within the next month but I'm pretty bad at keeping projects going...
> 
> If you can see any glaring mistakes please let me know!


	2. Have a Voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Dipper chat, the Tank is cleaned and Bill makes a mess

Dipper screamed, and fell backwards, onto his backside, the creature laughed, it was high pitched and grating, while Dipper calmed himself the 'mermaid' slipped back into the water, Dipper sat back up and breathed heavily, the thing, whatever it was could speak? Did no one think that was an important bit of information to share with him? If anything it being able to communicate with him added to his theory that it wasn't real.

Dipper looked over to the tank, there was a pair of yellow eyes watching him through the murky water, it sent shivers down his spine. Dipper ran his hand through his hair and stood up shakily, he brushed down his butt and walked over the tank. He peered over the edge, the creature was lurking a few inches under the water, watching him.

 

"Hey" Dipper said loudly, unsure on if he could be heard from under the water, the yellow eyes narrowed and moved closer towards Dipper, he stepped back as the torso of the 'mermaid' come out of the water. Dipper forgot what he wanted to say in an instant and just stared dumbfounded. It just looked so real.

 

"Hello there... Human, thing" It said, in a flat tone looking him up and down, it spoke english strangely, higher than he had expected and with an accent Dipper couldn't place. The two stared at each other for a few more seconds before the 'mermaid' started drifted back into the water.

 

"Wait!" Dipper shouted, it slid just a bit further in and then stopped.

 

"Jeez Kid, I just need to have my gills covered" Dipper nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving the creature, he stood a few feet away from the edge of the tank, questions ran through his head at a million miles an hour, but he couldn't bring himself to ask them. "You just gonna stand there?" it asked, scratching its neck absently, Dipper watched it, he noticed the sharp teeth and long, jagged fingernails.

 

"No, sorry, I just...um" Dipper said, still shocked "Can I ask you some questions?"

 

"Sure, why not." It responded, looking somewhat distracted.

 

"Do you have a name?" It was the first thing that came to mind, Dipper kinda needed something to call the thing.

 

"Bill" The 'mermaid' said, grinning.

 

"Seriously? Wow, Bill, I was expecting something more exotic then that" Dipper said, Bill glared at him.

 

"Oh, I'm sure your name is so much more interesting" He said, voice dripping with sarcasm, Dipper narrowed his eyes, he still didn't trust that the 'mermaid' or whatever it was real, its mannerisms where really human. "Do you have any more questions for me or should I go back to trying to find a way out of this disgusting place?" 

 

"What no, you can't leave, you need to heal!" Dipper said, "Anyway there is no way out, it's a closed system"

 

"What?" Bill looked at Dipper like he was trying to kill him with just those really, really creepy yellow eyes.

 

"Th-The aquarium is built so nothing can escape" Dipper managed to say, albeit shakily. "So nothing can hurt anyone or get hurt"

 

"Fucking humans" Bill tugged on his hair, He stopped glaring at Dipper and the human released a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. "So you things saved my ass and then locked me up?"

 

"They thought that if they left you... This is what we do when any animal is injured" Bill slipped under the water again, he seemed really pissed.

 

* * *

 

 

2 Hours later and Dipper had managed to get Bill out of the disgustingly murky water and back into the same tank, but now with fresh water and clean sides, Dipper watched as Bill inspected the blue walls, the stunning yellow of Bill's tail now clear through the water, Dipper could see the place where some scales had been ripped away and that the large fin at the end of the long tail had been ripped. He had also spotted a strange marking on the side of his torso, it was hard to see in the water but it looked like an eye.

Cleaning his tank had not been an easy job, Bill was whiny when he had less room to move around in. The hardest part was getting Bill in and out, he really didn't want to do what he was told and really didn't like being held. It took him nearly 15 minutes for Bill to pull himself out of the big tank into a smaller, mobile one that he sat in while Dipper cleaned. Dipper had to climb into the really disgusting, algae covered tank and blast it with a hose, it took ages, by the end of it the walls were once again blue. It had just finished refilling and Bill had been put back and Dipper sat on a chair next to the big tank, taking notes and sketching a really crappy rendition of Bill. He had never had much skill in the arts, that was all better left to Mabel.

"Hiya Human, you cleaned up the place!" Bill chirped, torso out of the water once again, Dipper startled slightly and looked up from his notes to look at the creature "Nearly made up for you trying to catch me" 

 

Dipper rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Just doing my job" Bill turned away from him, "Hey, Bill, what that on your side?"

 

"What this?" Bill responded indicating to the bright marking on his side, when Dipper nodded he laughed "It's just a marking kid, don't you have one?" Dipper shook his head, Bill laughed more. Dipper frowned, It made sense, fish and other animals often have markings that look like eyes to ward of potential predators, but why was it so funny that he didn't have one? Maybe it was a cultural thing?

 

After a few minutes of aggressively taking notes Dipper decided to end the silence, "So... how'd you got stuck in that stuff?" Dipper asked, he glanced over at Bill, who had been floating on the water, still giggling, he lifted his head to look at Dipper and narrowed his eyes, he stared at dipper for an uncomfortably long time before he finally spoke.

 

"It doesn't matter, you don't need to know" Bill almost growled, Dipper shrugged it off, if Bill didn't want to share that was fine. He was sick of sitting in there and was running out of things to write, he left Bill alone to go for lunch.

 

* * *

 

 

He came back to a total mess, there was water all over the floor and the tank was visibly less full.

 

"Seriously!" Dipper shouted, Bill appeared a few seconds later laughing, The mermaid or whatever the hell Bill was seemed to find this hilarious, Dipper groaned loudly. "What the actual hell Bill?" It took Bill a good few seconds to calm down 

 

"I got bored kid, what do you expect?" He answered, flicking his long tail out of the water, splashing more onto the ground, he laughed again. Dipper sighed, exasperated and went to grab a mob. Bill watched him as he walked away and flicked more water onto the ground. He wasn't happy about being left alone in this place, the water was weird and it was absolutely boring. Dipper came back after a short while and started cleaning Bill's mess.

It took about an hour to finish cleaning, Bill hadn't said much, "Are you just going to make another mess when I leave for the night?" Dipper asked Bill, who was resting with just his face out of the water, it was nearly time for Dipper to leave, he just had to find out whatever the hell Bill ate and take a picture or two for Mabel before he left. 

 

The 'mermaid' seemed to think about it a lot before he replied, "I might, Depends on my mood" 

 

"Are you hungry?"

 

"Yes"

 

"What do you eat then?" Bill looked at Dipper as he asked like it was a strange thing to ask

 

"Fish and stuff" He replied "I am Omnivorous" Dipper nodded and left to grab some food for Bill, when he came back the blond was sitting? could someone sit with a tail? at the bottom of the tank.

 

"Hey Bill," Dipper shouted at him "I brought food" as Bill started swimming back towards him Dipper pondered how different the situation would be if Bill couldn't speak. He reached the surface a few seconds later and licked his lips, it was creepy. Dipper threw in some of the food and watched as Bill devoured it, really creepy.

 

* * *

 

 

The last half hour or so of the day past slowly, Bill was swimming around the tank and didn't really seem to want to talk so Dipper just left him be. He wondered if there was anything he could leave with the blond so that when he got bored he wouldn't ruin the floors again. He grabbed a large floating ball from the store room and left next to the tank but doubted that Bill would want it. He was just about to leave when he remembered his promise to Mabel, he groaned inwardly, she would be really upset if he came back and she found out that he was working with Bill at all times but didn't even take her a picture. 

 

"Bill" He said, the 'mermaid' glanced up at him, tipping his head to the side, and swam towards the surface.

 

"What?"

 

"Can I take a picture of you?"

 

"A what?" 

 

"A picture? It's like a.. a snapshot? Of time?" Bill looked at him, he looked really confused. Dipper held up his phone, "This thing, takes a photo of whatever I point it at" he tried to explain, it really didn't seem to help, Bill just stared at him. Dipper sighed "I'll just show you, Smile" Bill narrowed his eyes but did as he was told, Dipper took the photo

 

 

He showed Bill the picture "Wow, That's ME!" He exclaimed, with a big grin, Dipper laughed, "Can I take one of you?" He asked

 

"No way, you'd just get my phone wet" Dipper replied, pulling the device out of Bill's reach when he tried to grab it.

 

"What it can't deal with water? That's boring" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow look two drawings! I hope you guys like, it might be a week or so before the next chapter comes out.  
> The Little Mermaid chapter names will never stop


End file.
